Welcome to Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Pages!

This page collects all additional essays on J.R.R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth that have not been included in the books. You know, some collectors prefer to have anything related to Tolkien standing in their bookshelves. Hence, I have collected expanded and updated versions of the histories of the lesser Men of Middle-earth, on Adûnaic and Westron and on astronomy and calendar reckoning in illustrated books that are available both as ebooks and in print.

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Montag, 7. August 2017

Sunday, 6 August 2941 T. A.: At the boundary of the Woodelves' land

A late descendant of Thuringwethil?
A Mirkwood bat, illustration by Horus Weber, 1957

On this day, in 2941 T. A., Bilbo and the Dwarves noticed for the first time a change in the vegetation of Mirkwood. Unbeknownst to them, they had passed the outer limits of Thranduil's domain, which didn't mean they could now travel safer. But at least there was more light at daytime.

For four consecutive days, they had been carrying Bombur to here who was still fast asleep from his bath in the Enchanted River. It is not recorded how they fed him, if at all. Not that Bombur wouldn't have had some excessive fat to spare, but what about his loss of water?

This night, there was a full moon rising over Mirkwood, according to the proper computations. But the Company had no way to observe the sky beyond the still visually impenetrable canopy of Mirkwood's trees. Note as well that, despite it being early August, "A few leaves came rustling down to remind them that outside
autumn was coming on." This is a significant observation in the light of the fact that the autumnal equinox is still far away, and it confused John Rateliff a lot.

Further south, around this day, the White Council finally launched its attack on Dol Guldur with the objective of driving out the Necromancer, after Saruman had given up his objections for his own private reasons.